The Ailing Tyrant Trains His Dog Every Day

[Two Male Leads + Emperor Bottom + Everyone Gets Involved, All Ships Welcome; Menu at the Start of Chapter One]

Shen Hengshuang is the most beautiful emperor in the history of Dayao, and also the easiest puppet to control. His brows are sculpted like frost, his eyes gleam with clear light, and he is like crystal glass dusted with thin snow.

Yet he seems dull and inexperienced, with none of an emperor’s cunning. He obeys whatever the Empress Dowager says, and the powerful ministers find him effortless to manipulate. He is nothing more than an ornate but useless bargaining chip.

Until the blizzard that sweeps across the imperial city. Punished for “defying her wishes,” he is made to kneel in the snow outside the hall. The wind cuts like a knife, the snow bites to the bone, and the chill seeping into his marrow seems to dispel the poison that has built up in his body over the years. As his consciousness blurs, memories of numbness and humiliation come surging back. When he opens his eyes again, all the dullness is gone, replaced by the clarity of fresh snow and the icy ruthlessness of a blade. The emperor’s sleeping soul abruptly returns.

From childhood, the young prince Shen Hengshuang had been cherished by the scions of the capital’s great families and pampered by the sons of the nobility as though he were a priceless treasure. Then a sudden coup pushed him onto the imperial throne. From that moment on, the Empress Dowager kept him on a tight leash and secretly tormented him, leaving him broken in body and spirit. By the time his old friends finally return to the capital, they find him changed. Their hearts overflow with rage and guilt, and they swear to tear down the shackles of the inner palace for his sake.